Redshirting In Outliers

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If parents want what is best for their child, they should avoid redshirting. In Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success, he discusses how kids who are redshirted are given disadvantages in their education. Redshirting is when a child is held back before they start kindergarten. Typically, children who turn 5 the summer before school entry may be redshirted. Most parents redshirt their children to prevent them from being younger classmates. Redshirting should not be allowed in the American education system because it provides an educational disadvantage. Redshirting a child sets them up for failure. Redshirting or not redshirting a child “locks children into patterns of achievement and underachievement, encouragement and discouragement,